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James Mangold Talks Wolverine 3 & Classic Yellow Costume

With the help of 3D ticket price premiums, The Wolverine solidified itself as the second most successful X-Men film at the worldwide box office. With Hugh Jackman at the lead and proving he can still sell the iconic, if rage-induced, mutant superhero, there's much more Wolverine in the pipeline for moviegoers.

Jackman returns as Logan next summer in X-Men: Days of Future Past and after that, he's not contracted to continue playing onscreen with his claws. With is passion for the character, he is however talking with director James Mangold about ideas for Wolverine 3 and there's one deleted scene on The Wolverine Blu-ray that we hope plays into the future of the character.

The Wolverine hits Blu-ray December 3rd and one of the deleted scenes that didn't make the theatrical or (or the Unleashed Extended Edition) features a live-action version of the classic Wolverine costume from Marvel Comics. It was awesome and something we've waited many years to see. Speaking with IGN at a screening of the extended, and much more bloody, cut of The Wolverine Mangold explained how the yellow costume came to be and why it's not in either version of the film.

I made it up on set. Honestly, first of all, I kept hearing and seeing from fans who were just begging to see this wardrobe, and I kept thinking as we were shooting, “How can I do this? How could I ever service this desire for people to see it?” And there was a point where I just asked the prop department to make me a gift box. So when I did that scene on the plane with Yukio, with Rila [Fukushima] and Hugh [Jackman], I had no costume. The studio hadn’t approved of making one or doing anything, but I thought, “Let’s just shoot a couple takes where he opens the box and reacts to it, and I can figure out what to put inside the box later.” There was just a point later in the cutting room where I put it together, and I thought, “It’s kinda sweet.”

Mangold had said previously at the event that the costume didn't make either cut because it didn't mesh with X-Men: Days of Future Past where he does not wear it. With the way The Wolverine ends however, with Logan and Yukio off to seemingly begin their own fully-funded heroics, perhaps it could surface in Wolverine 3 for which Mangold is developing and talking to Hugh Jackman about. There's also of course a screenplay of X-Force by Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) in the works and we can expect another X-Men team-up by Bryan Singer, Matthew Vaughn and co. to round out the First Class trilogy after Days of Future Past.

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When the still photo of the costume first surfaced online, we explained that while it's cool, it would need to be put into context to work in Fox's own Marvel cinematic universe. Why would he wear the costume? Why would Mariko give such a costume to him? If he wears the yellow duds, would characters around him suit up as well?

As for Wolverine 3 (The Wolverine 2?), Mangold explained that any story he's a part of would again be character-centric and not an over-the-top superhero flick.

Yeah, I think the thing I’d love to make sure we do is that we find a way to not to turn it into a “Will the world survive?” movie -- I think that that worked for us here -- but also not to make the same picture again. I think the key thing for me, you heard me talking about how I construct scripts, is just figuring out the key relationships and just what it’s about, what theme the whole thing is going to be about. I’ve got a good angle on it, but I’m not ready to talk about it yet!

The Wolverine dealt with Logan's "curse" of immortality and by the end of the story we saw him changed, physically and emotionally, with a renewed sense of purpose. What would the next Wolverine solo affair deal with and what stories from the comics could/should he draw from? Let us know in the comments!

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The Wolverine releases hits home video December 3, 2013, X-Men: Days of Future Past on May 23, 2014. Fantastic Fouropens June 19, 2015.